An Australian couples' house sitting blog, where we share moments from our house sits, pets we've minded, and some gorgeous places we've visited. Learn about house sitting & discover some tips about how to house sit or, talk to us about an information session on house sitting.

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Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. ~ Norman Vincent Peale

2013's Tree

The last couple of years we have been delighted to see the Christmas Thong Tree appear, in the dunes at the southern end of Lighthouse Beach. (If you're in Port and would like to see it, turn right where the camel rides are held, and keep walking - it's a way down the beach but the exercise'll do us all good after all those Christmas puds.)

I was a bit late in going to see if it had been put up again this year. The end of November I had a phone call, at midnight, in the middle of one of the worst storms we'd had - it was my mum to say, she'd fallen and couldn't get up - she'd managed to drag herself across the room to the phone to call me for help. She'd broken her hip poor treasure, so what with going back and forth to hospital, combined with a rather large share of thunderstorms in our area, I hadn't been able to see if the tree was up this year.

The Christmas Thong Tree 2014

But today, I managed to wander down to see if it was there... and there it was in all it's thongy, Christmassy glory.

May you have the gladness of Christmas which is hope;
The spirit of Christmas which is peace;
The heart of Christmas which is love. ~ Ada V. Hendricks

Seasons Greetings - from our kitchen to yours...

Well we're in the midst making Christmas lunch decisions - that is... what culture will we learn from this year, to include in our Christmas lunch? A few years ago my sister-in-law introduced us to the delights of Pierogis - a Polish traditional filled dumpling.

Then when it was our turn to host Christmas lunch, I wanted to include Pierogis on our menu. To my delight, I discovered a great tutorial by Gary 5x5 on youtube on How to make Pierogis. I followed Gary's great tutorials and I was able to surprise my sister-in-law with one her favourite Christmas treats that Christmas Day.

We had lots of fun watching and cooking along with the video throughout the day - made lots of mess and ended up with some great Pierogis for our first try.

So this year along with Pierogis, I'm not sure what other cultures' treats we will attempt. In the past we've included Hawaiian Ambrosia (now a regular), Ukranian Borscht, Maltese Pasitizzi (I have a great dough recipe if you want it for those), Italian Panettone, and the ever favourite, but has never been repeated, Bombe Alaska - now there's another story which includes a rotten ham, but that will have to wait till another post. I'll give you a heads up though, don't wait till Christmas Day to check your ham!

Welcome to our blog...

Let the beauty of what you love, be what you do. ~ Rumi

Hi thank you for visiting today. Our names are Kareen and Kevin and we love travel, homes and animals. So we have combined all our loves and we travel to care for beautiful homes, in lovely locations. And... if you have a special pet treasure to look after, we will give them, tender loving care while you are away.

We are also available to boat sit - we would love to try house sitting on barge boat or house boat in Europe - well for that matter anywhere gorgeous really.